Protective gear, including shoulder pads, as used in various contact sports or impact-prone disciplines, such as football, hockey, lacrosse, motocross and the like, are very well known in the art, indeed, advantages associated with these conventional shoulder pads are namely that: a) they offer essential protection in a physical impact sport; and b) they offer a recognizable design that appeal to players.
Known to the Applicant are the following US patent and patent applications which relate to such protective gear, including shoulder pads: U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,801; U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,418; U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,800; U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,601 B2; U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,070 B2; U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,216 B2; U.S. Pat. No. 7,748,056 B2; 2006/0272071 A1; 200710050886 A1; 200710151004 A1; 2008/0313793 A1; 2010/0122403 A1; 201010242158 A1; 2010/0293703 A1; 2010/0306907 A1; 201010306908 A1; 2010/0319097 A1; and 2010/0319104 A1.
Also known in the art are the various drawbacks associated with conventional protective shoulder pads, namely: a) they tend to be quite “bulky” (this is required namely to cover a wide range of body motion); b) they interfere and/or limit body motion; c) they lack protection and expose sensitive body parts when a player is in motion (e.g. shoulder blade, underarm section of ribs, etc.); d) they offer little adjustment for fit and protection; e) they retain body heat and body sweat; f) they are not optimally designed to ensure that they are maintained in place with respect to a body of a given user during the various movements thereof, given that most of conventional shoulder pads are “floating” shoulder pads; and g) they are not designed to allow a customization depending on a user's preferences or other considerations, such as a degree of protection being sought, the extent of range of motion being desired, the particular type of sport to be played and/or the particular position to be played within said sport.
Hence, in light of the aforementioned, there is a need for an improved system which, by virtue of its design and components, would be able to overcome or at least minimize some of the aforementioned prior art concerns.